Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc are already handing Lewis Hamilton his seventh Formula 1 title after Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion had lady luck very much on his side as he crawled home despite a last-lap puncture to take victory at Silverstone, this after teammate Valtteri Bottas had dropped from P2 to P11 after his own tyre failure two laps earlier.
As a result, it means Hamilton now holds a 30-point lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship, and with Mercedes currently so dominant, few see the Finn recouping that deficit.
“No.” Was Verstappen’s simple response as to whether the Briton could be stopped from matching Michael Schumacher’s iconic record.
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“The question is ‘can anybody stop Lewis?’ No. I think the guy that has some chances is Valtteri – but that’s it,” Leclerc then added.
Bottas too accepted Sunday was quite the blow in what will be a shortened season that initially planned due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but equally, he wasn’t throwing in the towel just yet.
“Of course it’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s a big loss of points. These kinds of things, you can’t really afford, but obviously it happened.
“Yes Lewis had a good race, but he also got away with it in a way. What can I do? What can I say? It’s not ideal, but you can’t change what has happened.
“For the moment, if everything goes to plan with the calendar, I think there’s going to be more than 10 races to go,” Valtteri added.
“But you just don’t know, so obviously the best bet would be to be on top of the points all of the time.
“I’ll keep pushing and keep believing. You just never know what will happen.”
